New book chronicles early polygamy among Mormons (Open)

Chicago Tribune ^ | February 8, 2009

[Zakeet]

If the past is a window to the present, then a new book about polygamy among early Mormons could be a portal to understanding where some contemporary Utah polygamists have found inspiration for their way of life.

From child brides and secret ceremonies to their defiance of marriage laws, the narrative in George D. Smith's "Nauvoo Polygamy" illustrates the development and breadth of polygamy as it was first practiced in the 1840s by the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints living in Nauvoo, Ill.

"It changes our understanding of a plurality of wives," polygamy historian Martha Sontag Bradley said of the book. "It provides indisputable, quantifiable evidence that the scope of plural marriage was more broad and deep than we had imagined."

In nearly 700 pages, the book weaves the story of church founder Joseph Smith's relationships with the more than 30 women he married and how he persuaded his closest followers that "celestial marriage" was a sacred and essential religious practice.

[Snip]

The sales pitch for polygamy was a combination of eternal promises and threats.

"There is this sense that if you don't do this, the afterlife is really going to be bleak," George D. Smith said. "But if you take this chance and accept Smith as a husband and join with these other wives you will have all these rewards and endless glory."

According to "Nauvoo Polygamy," 38 women were sufficiently seduced and married Joseph Smith.

Some were sisters. Some were widows. At least one was pregnant and 11 were already married to other men.

{snip]

The two youngest brides were 14 and the oldest 58 when they married the 37-year-old Smith in 1843.

[Zakeet]

The Mormon Church is really trying to rinse the color out of LDS history.

According to the article; The Mormon Church's denial of history coupled with its attempts to distance itself from its polygamous past, misrepresentation of the magnitude of polygamy, elimination of references to plural wives in Sunday school manuals, drove the author's curiosity and led to the book.

"I guess I was intrigued by the obvious forgetting," said the author, whose research is largely based on documents and diaries held in the Mormon church archives. "Here is something that was so elemental to the organization of the Mormons and yet there is this obvious lack of understanding. So the question is, why is the institution trying to forget?"

[wolfcreek]

Well, at least Mormans don’t have to *forget* something like the Inquisition.

[1rudeboy]

LOL—at least no one has to *forget* treating women like property in the eyes of the law.

[Hi Heels]

GASP!

You mean to tell me that early Mormons were polygamists???? No WAY!!! Holy Baloney Batman!!

In the words of Melvin P. Thorpe.....

Stop this copulation....stop this copulation!

/S

[metmom]

It’s not about *forgetting*. It’s about denial of a history that makes them look bad to the rest of the world.

If they look bad, no converts. It’s simple.

[P-Marlowe]

Well, at least Mormans don’t have to *forget* something like the Inquisition.

I guess you've never heard of the Danites or the Mountain Meadows Massacre?

[Utah Binger]

Polygamy Rationalization: The good Lord hath ordained this to help me overcome the guilt of my Bill Clinton ways. It also gets me a pass with wife number one and allows a good deal of bar hopping with the boys. I just need to remember to bring a Bishop or two along to perform quickie marriages when I find those special hotties.

I am so blessed. I know this is true as my sperm build up problem has been solved.

[Tennessee Nana]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Mormonism is based on the “principal” or fornication and adultery...

Joe Smith got other guys to commit wholesale adultery also, to cover up his sin...

[svcw]

Every people group has something in their history they would wish to not to be brought to the light, the problem arises when the history is denied.

Rather than denying history accept it and say we "over came" and moved on, this is who we are today and why. Or one could say that was then/them this is now/us.

With the ldsers there is always denial that these events happened, even though there is historical evidence to the contrary.

There is one group that says they are practicing the "true lds" and that is the flds. So what happens is that the current mainstream lds trys to deny what the flds practice as some distorted offshoot when they are not.

The current mainstream lds should just say, "we left the old practices because......" rather than deny they ever happened.

It is the denial that causes the uproar.

[greyfoxx39]

There is one group that says they are practicing the "true lds" and that is the flds. So what happens is that the current mainstream lds trys to deny what the flds practice as some distorted offshoot when they are not.

[Godzilla]

[Elsie]

The Mormon Church's denial of history...

[Elsie]

You mean to tell me that early Mormons were polygamists???? No WAY!!! Holy Baloney Batman!!

 

Well; they SHOULDN'T have been; if they knew ANYTHING about Scripture or 'scripture'.

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TRUTH IGNORED

 

 

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Smith, Young, Taylor, Pratt, Snow, Kimball, Woodruff ...

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 1 Timothy 3:2-3
 2.  Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
 3.  not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

 

 

1 Timothy 3:12
   A deacon must be the husband of but one wife and must manage his children and his household well.

 

 

 Titus 1:6
   An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.

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BEHOLD!!!!  The Restorative Power  of the Book of Mormon!!

 

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THE BOOK OF JACOB
THE BROTHER OF NEPHI

CHAPTER 2

 

  24 Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord.
  25 Wherefore, thus saith the Lord, I have led this people forth out of the land of Jerusalem, by the power of mine arm, that I might raise up unto me a righteous branch from the fruit of the loins of Joseph.
  26 Wherefore, I the Lord God will not suffer that this people shall do like unto them of old.
  27 Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none;
  28 For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination before me; thus saith the Lord of Hosts.
  29 Wherefore, this people shall keep my commandments, saith the Lord of Hosts, or cursed be the land for their sakes.
  30 For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things.
  31 For behold, I, the Lord, have seen the sorrow, and heard the mourning of the daughters of my people in the land of Jerusalem, yea, and in all the lands of my people, because of the wickedness and abominations of their husbands.
  32 And I will not suffer, saith the Lord of Hosts, that the cries of the fair daughters of this people, which I have led out of the land of Jerusalem, shall come up unto me against the men of my people, saith the Lord of Hosts.

 

 

[Elsie]

 I know this is true as my sperm build up problem has been solved.

 

I guess you ARE healing; you OOB you!

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2 Nephi 3:12

     Wherefore, the fruit of thy loins write; and the fruit of thy loins of Judah shall write; and that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins, and also that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins of Judah, shall grow together,

2 Nephi 3:18      And the Lord said unto me also: I will raise up unto the fruit of thy loins; and I will make for him a spokesman. And I, behold, I will give unto him that he shall write the writing of the fruit of thy loins, unto the fruit of thy loins; and the spokesman of thy loins shall declare it.

 

Joseph Smith Translation Gen. 50: 27   Thus saith the Lord God of my fathers unto me, A choice seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins, and he shall be esteemed highly among the fruit of thy loins; and unto him will I give commandment that he shall do a work for the fruit of thy loins, his brethren.

Joseph Smith Translation Gen. 50: 31    Wherefore the fruit of thy loins shall write, and the fruit of thy loins of Judah shall write; and that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins, and also that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins of Judah, shall grow together

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[Tennessee Nana]

Other than Emma, the only legal wife...

1. Where are all the marriage licenses and/or certificates from the states of Illinois, Missouri and Ohio ????

Real marriages have real documents...

and real marriage celebrants...

The guys that “officiated” for Joe Smith were not licensed in thoser states to perform marriages..

2. Polygamy was illegal and was akin to bigamy in the states of Illinois, Missouri, and Ohio and was always against the law...

Many “polygamist” “husbands” went to prison ...

Ann Eliza Webb filed for “divorce” from Brigham Young and sued him for alimony in 1877. but Young successfully argued in court that their relationship was “an ecclesiastical affair, not a legal one,” and the judge rightly ruled that since there was never any legal marriage, Webb could not file for divorce nor seek alimony.

Since Young himself admitted that his own “plural marriages” were not legal marriages, that means that no other Mormon “plural marriage” at any time was a legal marriage either. No legal marriage licenses were ever applied for nor granted, and every single child born of Mormon “plural marriages” was illegitimate - i.e. not born in a legal marriage.

3. In the states of Illinois, Missouri, and Ohio, the actual act of copulation was necessary to consumate a marriage and make it legal...

Either Joe Smith didnt consumate those dozens of “marriages” and therefore was guilty of fraud, or he just had one night stands, and was guilty of adultery and was not a righteous man...

As Joe Smith went to the lengths in his woman chasin’ as to write dire threats against his legal wife, Emma, in order to force her into ceasing her rightful objection to Joe’s philandering, the one night stand argu8ment has concrete evidence on it’s side...

Also, one reluctant girl was persuaded to have sex with Joe Smith when he told her that an angel with a sword would kill him if she didnt...Joe’s physical condition might have been effected by her aquiescence, but it wasnt rescue from a grusome death...

Another received a letter from Joe Smith telling her to visit him for the night but not to let Emma catch her...This letter came with the indecent instructions to hide the communique under her clothes and against her “bosum” until she got there. Hardly the words used in polite conversation to a young single woman from a married man in the Victorian Era, and not by any “man/prophet of God”...

4. Offspring. Joe Smith had used some married women. At least one had Joe’s illegitimate child, and brought it up as her husbands. Joe kept Dr Bennett for secret abortions, and some women were told to say they had another husband who was on a “mission” if pregnancy occurred.

Joe brought his girlfriends to live in Emma’s own house (Joe was a guy with no concience and even less decency and respect)Emma caught him several times having sex in the house. She pushed one of his doxies down the stairs and she miscarried. Joe’s hos had no respect for Emma either. Nor for themselves.

For a guy who played the field, Joe could have published his own “Playboy” and got a jump on HH...Oh, wait he did...D&C 132...

[Elsie]

It also gets me a pass with wife number one and allows a good deal of bar hopping with the boys.

So does THIS!!!

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THE
DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS
OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS

SECTION 132

 

  51–57, Emma Smith is counseled (commanded) to be faithful and true; 58–66, Laws governing the plurality of wives are set forth.

 

 

  51 Verily, I say unto you: A commandment I give unto mine handmaid, Emma Smith, your wife, whom I have given unto you, that she stay herself and partake not of that which I commanded you to offer unto her; for I did it, saith the Lord, to ^aprove you all, as I did Abraham, and that I might require an offering at your hand, by covenant and sacrifice.

  52 And let mine handmaid, Emma Smith, ^areceive all those that have been given unto my servant Joseph, and who are virtuous and pure before me; and those who are not pure, and have said they were pure, shall be destroyed, saith the Lord God.

  53 For I am the Lord thy God, and ye shall obey my voice; and I give unto my servant Joseph that he shall be made ruler over many things; for he hath been ^afaithful over a few things, and from henceforth I will strengthen him.

  54 And I command mine handmaid, Emma Smith, to abide and ^acleave unto my servant Joseph, and to none else. But if she will not abide this commandment she shall be ^bdestroyed, saith the Lord; for I am the Lord thy God, and will destroy her if she abide not in my law.

  55 But if she will not abide this commandment, then shall my servant Joseph do all things for her, even as he hath said; and I will bless him and multiply him and give unto him an ^ahundredfold in this world, of fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, houses and lands, wives and children, and crowns of ^beternal lives in the eternal worlds.

  56 And again, verily I say, let mine handmaid ^aforgive my servant Joseph his trespasses; and then shall she be forgiven her trespasses, wherein she has trespassed against me; and I, the Lord thy God, will bless her, and multiply her, and make her heart to ^brejoice. 

 

 

 

 

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Whatever HAPPENED to Emma???

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Eliza was a devout Mormon. At age 38, she became Joseph Smith's 14th plural wife (in addition to Smith's lawful wife, Emma). In 1842, after learning Eliza was pregnant, Emma Smith beat Eliza with a broomstick and knocked her down a flight of stairs, causing Eliza to miscarry Smith's baby.

 

 

Wow!!

 

 

I guess ol' Emma got VAPORIZED by GOD!!!

 

 

We know that multiply him thing sure didn't work out!

[Elsie]

It is the denial that causes the uproar.

A-Rod!?

Is that YOU?

[Utah Binger]

I guess you ARE healing; you OOB you!

Hey, can't I just bear my testimonkey? LOL

[Elsie]

Bear? Yes.

Spank? No...

[Tennessee Nana]

The term “Celestial Marriage”

Modern mormons think this means monogamous temple marriage. Actually, this term always referred exclusively to plural marriage until the 1890s. Until that time, faithful members married in the temple to only one spouse did not have a celestial marriage!

According to ALL Church presidents until 1890, celestial marriage was achieved only by marriage to multiple wives. See 27 Rules of Celestial Marriage, by Apostle Orson Pratt.

Also, William Clayton said: “From Joseph Smith I learned that the doctrine of plural and celestial marriage is the most holy and important doctrine ever revealed to man on the earth, and that without obedience to that principle, no man can ever attain to the fullness of exaltation in celestial glory.” Historical Record, Vol. 6, pp. 225-227. Read even more historical references here:

http://www.mormons.org.uk/cpmr.htm